An inaugural event with a home town winner makes for some great atmosphere, and that’s exactly what Challenge Denmark half iron-distance delivered, with Michelle Vesterby taking the title over Mary Beth Ellis. Meanwhile in the full distance – run simultaneously with the half – it was a battle of the Germans, coming down to the wire with Beate Goertz overtaking Carolin Lehrieder in the last few kilometres for the win. We take a look at how the day unfolded in Billund, the home of Legoland and now Lego-puns.
Text and images by Witsup
3… 2… 1… LEGO! The Swim
The half distance - Conditions could not have been smoother for the swim start in Herning. The half distance athletes took to the waters nearly two hours after the full distance triathletes, in impressive mathematically timed designed swim roll outs which saw athletes swimming clockwise and anti-clockwise, like, well, clockwork!
In only her third crack over this distance, first out of the water was non-drafting Olympic distance, turned half iron-distance athlete, Catherine Jameson in a time of 24:55 – showcasing her swimming background. The chase was on with Mary Beth Ellis 25 seconds in arrears and local Dane, Michelle Vesterby a further 34 seconds behind. A quick transition saw Jameson leap ahead early on the bike.
The full distance - Eva Potuckova got off to a flying start in the swim, posting easily the fastest swim split of the day from the men’s and women’s professional fields combined. Carolin Lehrieder was her closest chaser, but had six minutes to make up, and was followed by Louise Rundqvist a further six minutes in arrears.
Everything is Awesome – The Bike
The half distance - The bike course was an awesome point to point for the half distance, and was pancake flat, however, there were sections that were quite technical with plenty of sharp turns to keep athletes on their toes. Jameson wasted no time pushing the pace on the bike and by the half way mark she had stretched her lead to over three minutes. Further back, Vesterby had overtaken Ellis who was having a few issues with her brakes in the wet and took a corner too hot, forcing her off the road. To add insult to the injury, Ellis would later found out that she was penalised four minutes for her wetsuit not being put into the gear bag currently, and had to stand to the side when she returned to T2.
Vesterby worked hard to pull back time into Jameson’s lead, but Jameson entered T2 with the faster bike split of the day and a 1:53 buffer on the home town athlete. Ellis continued to grind ahead, entering transition a couple of minutes back, but adding an extra four minutes to her race before she could hit the ground running.
The full distance - Potuckova’s lead was short lived, with Lehrieder pushing ahead in the first third of the bike leg and taking the lead for the remainder of the ride. Conditions were up and down throughout the day, the rain forcing athletes to hit parts of the winding course with caution. Making moves was Beate Goertz who was working with an almost 13 minute deficit out of the swim. In the latter stages of the bike she had moved her way from fifth out of the swim and into second place, hitting transition just over six minutes behind Lehrieder. However, she lost more time in transition as Lehrieder took off onto the run course. American, Jessie Donavan was also making her way through the ranks on the bike, and had the leaders metaphorically looking over their shoulders as Donavan is no stranger to playing the hunter when it comes to the marathon.
Brick Session – The bike onto the run
The half distance - By the five kilometre marker, Vesterby had pretty much reeled in Jameson’s lead, moving ahead of her quickly, running on the home town high she was receiving from the local crowds. Vesterby stated pre-race, that she was in the shape of her life, and was certainly showcasing that with ease at the front of the race. Ellis, after serving her penalty, went to work hunting down the leaders.
By the 13-14 kilometre marker she had caught the fading Jameson who has had less than ideal running training due to injury, and moved into second place, but it she ran out of room to catch Vestrby who was running comfortably at the front and crossed the finish line to take the Challenge Denmark Half inaugural title in front of a home crowd and her husband, who is also the race director. “I did this for my husband,”she joked at the finish line. Ellis, continued running consistently to take out second place, and Jameson held on for third convincingly.
The full distance - For the first half of the run, Lehrieder was putting on an impressive show and at one stage had pushed her lead out to eight minutes over Goertz, however, the back half of her marathon started to hurt as Goertz began to turn the screws and bring her closer to the top spot. With approximately five to six kilometres to go, Goertz made the pass on her fellow German triathlete and made her way to the finish line for an exciting win by just one minute. Lehrieder easily held onto second place with an emotional trot down the finish line, and was followed 10 minutes later by Donavan in third.
Stay tuned for our photo gallery and videos in the coming days…
Challenge Denmark Half Results
1
Michelle Vesterby
DEN
4:19:32
2
Mary Beth Ellis
USA
4:22:15
3
Catherine Jameson
GBR
4:27:04
4
Tanja Hultengren Larsson
DEN
4:37:40
5
Kathrin Walther
GER
4:46:38
6
Eva Nyström
SWE
4:48:03
7
Jenny Nilsson
SWE
4:51:24
8
Eloise Crowley
GBR
4:57:29
9
Jacqui Gordon
USA
4:59:45
Challenge Denmark Full Results
1
Beate Goertz
9:22:28
2
Carolin Lehrieder
9:23:29
3
Jessie Donavan
9:33:28
4
Susanne Svendsen
9:36:21
5
Eva Potuckova
9:46:24
6
Celia Kuch
9:53:55
7
Anne Jensen
9:55:18
8
Louise Rundqvist
10:03:22